Tourism Summit

While the Nevada Legislature ponders whether it should consolidate the Nevada Tourism Commission with the Nevada Economic Development Commission, a grass-roots group of state tourism entities plans to rally in Carson City on March 18 to strategize.
The first-ever half-day Nevada Tourism Summit is planned at the Gold Dust West in Carson City and will feature presentations by former Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt-Bono and Bill Siegel, chief executive of Toronto-based Longwoods International, a tourism and market research consultant.

Hunt-Bono is a member of the state's Tourism Commission and headed it when she served as lieutenant governor. Siegel has assisted clients in six countries and 37 states and is known for a recent case study on the collapse of the tourism industry in Colorado when it quit funding its marketing.

The rally is sponsored by Save Nevada Tourism, a group of tourism organizations in Northern Nevada, including the Carson City Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Carson Valley Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau, the North Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce, the Incline Village-Crystal Bay Visitors Bureau, the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association, the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority and the Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce.

The summit is occurring a day before the first scheduled legislative committee hearing on proposed budget cuts to the Tourism Commission.

Siegel's report on Colorado, 'What Happens When You Stop Marketing? The Rise and Fall of Colorado Tourism,' is expected to be a rallying point for the group.

Gov. Jim Gibbons' budget proposes a 58 percent cut in the state Tourism Commission budget, including a plan to merge it with the Economic Development Commission. Most tourism leaders say merging the commissions would be a mistake, citing a downturn in Colorado in the early 2000s when that state pulled its tourism marketing money.